The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1887-06-23
THE HOME OF BUDDHA.
STRANGE SCENES IN THE ANCIENT
CITY OF BENARES.
Worshipers Bathing Together in the
Sacred Waters of the Ganges-The
Bathing Ghats-The Funeral Pyre-The
Priests and Devotees.


Sacred Waters of the Ganges-The
D Bathing Ghats-The Funeral Pyre-The
Priests and Devotees.
About 800 miles from its mouth on the left
bank Of the Ganges, the great sacred river of
the Hindu people, 10 propitiate which only a
few years ago mothers were wont to offer I'D
their babes, is the city Of idols and the home
Of idoatry, Benares. 1t is to the Hindu
what Mecca is to the Mohammedan, and a
pilgrimage to itsometime during his life is the
necessary journey of every true Indian pagan
Though there are no historical records to
prove 1t, 1t is generally conceded that it is one
OF the, If not the most ancient city in the
world, and that even when Rome was found
ing Benares was centuries old.
1t IS most peculiarly native in its streets, its
buildings and its inhabitants, and, of all
places in India, it is the place to see the abo-
riginal habits, customs and people. 1t num-
bels It's temples i'll the thousands, hut its
shrnes are 50 many that no attempt is made
to number them. The sacred monkey runs
up and down the walls and over the affairs of
the temple of Durga kund and the sacred
bulls and cows Wander about that of Anna
pura and feed on the garlands that the
wors lipers cast before them Just outside
the ~ is the spot made sacred by Buddhas
prese ice, and the tanks in which he bathed
himself, his garments, and his religious YES
Sells said to have been protected from the con-
tamnation of man by fiery dragons. Benares
is the religious seat Of India, and might not
inappropriately be called the capital of
leatnenism.
BENARES' BATHING CHATS
But Notwithstanding its many temples and
shrines with their wonderful Carvings, its
little narrow streets and lofty buildings, its
curious bazaars, by far the most interesting
part OF Benare5 are the bathing CHATS as seen
from boat sailing up and down the sacred
janges. Here one can spend hours and not
tire, for there is a panorama as changing as
kaleidoscope, and whose pictures are as bril-
liant as all artists imagination can paint
them, for every day large proportion of the
inhabitants, high caste and low, go down to
the river to ba.he in and to worship the divine
stream as it goes rolling on its way to the
ocean, and the banks slined and the water
Tiled with men, women and children are
sight never to be forgotten
Here an old, gray haired man feebly washes
his shrunken legs and arms i'll the cleansing
and divine water AT his side stands young
Hindu matrOn, whose wet garment clings to
her body and show perfectly her well formed
limbs. A Hindu dandy, almost naked, sits
oply few feet away on the bank combing his
long, oily, locks and admirng himself in a
little mirror, which he holds in one hand. A
powerful, athletic looking man stands not far
away swinging with all his might u pair of
primitive Indian clubs, while poor Old bag
comes out Of the cold water and exposes her
withered breast to the warm rays of the sun.
Little boys and girls run into the water,
splash about and then run out again and roll
their wet bodies in the dust or lie down upon
the warm store steps that lead down to the
water. On the top step sits motionless a
chubby infant whose mother has washed him
and set him up there to dry.
A DARK HUED APHRoDITE.
A young girl walks trippingy down to the
edge of the water and daintily puts her well
shaped foot, the toes of which are perhaps
covered, though not adorned with rings, into
the water as though to feel its temperature,
and then suddenly draws it out as if it turned |
out to be little cold. But at last she plunges
boldly in, and that wonderful river that has
witnessed more sacrifices or murders than |
any other body Of water in the world re-
ceives her beneath its surface, above which a |
second later she emerges like a young mer-
maid and, like the dark hued Aphrodite, |
shakes the drops of water from her hair.
Down the bank come four men carrying on |
\ stretcher a dead body, with only o cloth
thrown over it, so thin that through it can be
seen distinctly tho outlines Of the corpse.
They pile up wood, place the corpse upon it,
pile on more wood and after few muttered
words light the funeral pyre, while the friends
and relatives of the dead sit around and watch
the body as it burns in the open air. The
wood drops down and one sees a leg half con-
;umed or all arm burned in two. But the at
PENDANTS pile on more wood and the burning
and the watching go on. When all has been
tho last few ashes are cast into the
river. Down to the water comes high caste
Brahmin woman clad in brilliant garments
and attended by numerous servants, for all
alike must bathe in the sacred stream.
At intervals along the bank, on raised plat
forms, sit the priests, by far the most intelli-
gent looking of the great throng And when
they come out these priests paint the fore
heads of the devotees with peculiar markings,
accept their offerings and encourage them in
heir idolatrous practices. Off they go to
jome favorite temple to worship some idol
and make way for the new corners who wish
70 battle in the sanctified stream. And the
livine river goes on in its course as it has
lone for centuries, receiving the devotions of
he faithful, who wash themselves in its
waters, and perhaps rejoicing that higher
civilization has pu' stop to q practice that
made it the unc' nscious cause of many a
mothers anguish and worship.
Cor. Chicago Tribune.
The Easter Island Images.